


Gabe/William College AU

by rsadelle



Category: Bandom, Cobra Starship, The Academy Is...
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - College/University, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-12-06
Updated: 2009-12-06
Packaged: 2017-10-26 04:36:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,169
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/278758
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rsadelle/pseuds/rsadelle
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Gabe groaned. "The Gap? What hive of corporate villainy are you dragging me into?"</p>
            </blockquote>





	Gabe/William College AU

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote the scene below, then described the background of the story to [](http://schuyler.livejournal.com/profile)[**schuyler**](http://schuyler.livejournal.com/) (explanation also included below), and then never came back to it. [This picture](http://pics.livejournal.com/rsadelle/pic/00085dxd) inspired the backstory.

[](http://rsadelle.livejournal.com/profile)[**rsadelle**](http://rsadelle.livejournal.com/) : Grad student Gabe (Philosophy) lives in a house with four other students. Vicky-T (History?), by virtue of being the only girl, gets the master bedroom. Gabe has the other room on the second floor. Ryland (Drama) and Alex (English Lit) have the attic; Nate (History? Physics?) has the basement. Gabe threatens to make them switch when Alex and Ryland are being loud at all hours of the night.

[](http://rsadelle.livejournal.com/profile)[ **rsadelle**](http://rsadelle.livejournal.com/) : But mostly they hang out together in the common areas (kitchen, dining room, living room) on the first floor. The outside of the house is painted purple.

[](http://schuyler.livejournal.com/profile)[ **schuyler**](http://schuyler.livejournal.com/) : I feel like Nate should be their resident undergrad.

[](http://rsadelle.livejournal.com/profile)[ **rsadelle**](http://rsadelle.livejournal.com/) : Yeah, I think so too. He's probably too young to be a grad student.

[](http://schuyler.livejournal.com/profile)[ **schuyler**](http://schuyler.livejournal.com/) : he was probably tossed out of the dorms

[](http://rsadelle.livejournal.com/profile)[ **rsadelle**](http://rsadelle.livejournal.com/) : For blowing shit up.

[](http://schuyler.livejournal.com/profile)[ **schuyler**](http://schuyler.livejournal.com/) : yup

[](http://rsadelle.livejournal.com/profile)[ **rsadelle**](http://rsadelle.livejournal.com/) : Of course, the real story is about how Gabe goes to the mall with Vicky-T one day. She drags him into The Gap, where a very pretty boy named William helps them.

  
Gabe groaned. "The Gap? What hive of corporate villainy are you dragging me into?"

Vicky-T just smiled up at him in that decepitvely sweet way she had. "We're going to Victoria's Secret next."

Gabe leered at her. "I already know all of Victoria's secrets."

"Welcome to The Gap," someone interrupted them.

Gabe looked up, expecting to see one of the usual drones. The guy was dressed in the khakis and button-down that seemed to be the usual drone uniform, but this guy was no drone. He had plastic framed glasses, a sharp nose, and longish hair that fell in soft waves around his face. He was skinny, too, skinny enough that Gabe's internal Jewish mother wanted to feed him until he couldn't eat any more, and then do it all over again. The guy's name tag proclaimed him to be William.

"Let me know if I can help you find anything."

Gabe opened his mouth, but Vicky-T said, "Thanks," and dragged him into the women's side of the store before he could say anything.

"Ow, what?" Vicky-T's grip was surprisingly strong.

"Stop perving." She let go of him to flip through a rack of clothes. "He's probably not even out of high school."

Gabe drew himself up to his full height. "Victoria," he proclaimed, "age of consent laws are an arbitrary limit designed by an overprotective status quo unable to understand that each and every relationship has its own complexities."

Vicky-T pushed at him to get get to the rack behind him. "You're in my way."

Watching her shop didn't really get interesting until she started trying things on, so Gabe wandered toward the accessories. He didn't hold out much hope for anything good, but it couldn't hurt to look. He was despairing over the boring nature of their sunglasses when William appeared at his side. He had a scarf dangling from his hands.

"Try this," he suggested.

The scarf, when Gabe took it from him, was a bundle of soft fluffiness against his hands. He wrapped it twice around his neck. "Well?"

William hmmed. "More like." Then his lovely long fingers brushed against Gabe's neck as he loosened and redraped the scarf. "There."

Gabe ducked a little to look at himself in the completely inadequate mirror on the accessory wall. "Very dashing," he decided. He was pretty sure there was an upward twitch of William's lips, so he lowered his voice and leaned in to confide, "I'm very modest." That was definitely the beginning of a smile, but then William was looking past him.

"Are you ready for a dressing room?"

Victoria had managed to amass an astoundingly large armful of clothes in the short time Gabe had been occupying himself with accessories and William. Gabe, good friend that he was, loitered around the mirrors and gave his opinion on every piece while William came by at uneven intervals to see if she needed anything. Between them, they managed to whittle her stack down to a third of its original size. It was still an impressive haul.

Gabe stood at the counter with her, and after she'd taken her bags full of clothes, he held out the end of the scarf with the tag for William to scan.

"I can cut that off if you want to wear it," William offered.

"I very much want to wear it," Gabe proclaimed. William cut the tag off and dropped it into Gabe's hand with his receipt. Gabe made no move to leave, but leaned casually against the counter. "What do I have to do to see you again?"

William bit his lip. It was quite endearing. "I have a break now," he said. "Just fifteen minutes."

"Perfect." Gabe turned back to Vicky-T as William let someone else know he was leaving and came out from behind the counter. "Victoria, you go discover your secrets. I'm going to buy this nice young man an Orange Julius." He tucked his arm through William's and was only mildly surprised when William let it stay there.

"Fine," Vicky-T said, "but you're buying me lunch tomorrow."

Gabe saluted her with his free arm and took William to the food court where he did, indeed, buy them each an Orange Julius.

"So, William," Gabe asked when they were seated across from each other at a small table, "what brought you to The Gap?"

William met Gabe's eyes, the hint of a smirk playing around his mouth. "I'm very good at folding."

Gabe gave that only the barest minimum of the leer of it deserved. "I like a man who can fold."

"You would," William murmured, and then closed his lips around his straw again. He was really quite enticing.

Gabe leaned his elbows on the table, leaned forward toward the very pretty boy across from him. "How did The Gap come to be on the receiving end of your folding skills?"

"They hire high school kids," William said after a moment of concentration directed at his Orange Julius. "After graduation, it was easier to just keep working there."

Gabe smiled, but not too broadly. "So you are legal."

William's lips curved up into something of a smile. "Not to drink."

Gabe reached out and ran the pad of his index finger halfway around the curve of the lid on William's cup. "But for all the other important things."

"Yes," William agreed. His smile widened for a moment, and then he said, "I have to go back to work now."

"No," Gabe protested. "It hasn't been fifteen minutes yet."

"Close enough," William said, and he even sounded kind of sorry about it. "The Orange Julius line was long." He stood up with the kind of languid grace that made Gabe want to see what else he could do.

Gabe stood too. "I'll walk you back." He tucked his arm through William's again.

  
And then eventually there's hanging out at the house, and maybe one of the other Cobras is a TA for one of William's classes.


End file.
